Meet Our Staff
Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) at UC Santa Cruz is a part-centralized, part-decentralized service, with professionally trained master's- and doctoral-level clinicians located in our central counseling office within the Cowell Student Health Center complex, as well as in various locations across campus. Our staff members come from diverse backgrounds and have a special interest in and experience with helping students explore a wide range of issues. We offer a variety of mental health and wellness services to UCSC students and the broader UCSC community.
Please note that while some of us have particular areas of specialization, all of us at CAPS recognize the social pressures and cultural factors that affect different groups in unique ways. We have been trained in aspects of multicultural counseling, including working with LGBTQIA+ students, addressing rape and sexual abuse, and supporting students with disabilities. CAPS staff also engage in ongoing mandatory and voluntary continuing education to further enhance their skills as mental health professionals.
The following is a list of our staff members and their locations. Note that we do not provide drop-in counseling, so if you are interested in finding out about and/or starting services with CAPS, please stop by our central office or call us during business hours at (831) 459-2628. You can also find more information about our services on our Counseling Services, Psychiatry, and Groups & Workshops web pages.
- Pronouns she/hers
- Title
- CAPS Senior Staff Psychologist
- Division Student Affairs and Success
- Department
- Counseling & Psychological Services
- Phone 831-502-8029
- Mail Stop CAPS
Summary of Expertise
Julia is a generalist clinician who enjoys working with all students with anything they are experiencing or questions they may have about themselves. Main concerns seen include adjustment/transitions and related shifts in mood, suicidality, self-harm, racial trauma, and identity development issues, among other experiences. She offers additional experience and expertise in incorporating cultural relational/identity exploration and social justice values as part of treatment, as well as narrative and mindfulness practices.
Populations and clinical areas of interest/experience/expertise include sexual identity development, gender identity development, African/Black/Caribbean (ABC)-identified students, major/chronic health issues, students who struggle with attentional difficulties/ADHD, and graduate students.
Biography, Education and Training
Julia is a licensed psychologist with over 2 decades of experience at college counseling centers and community mental health settings on both coasts (and in New Mexico!). She grew up in New Jersey, and has lived in California since 2011, with some years in Albuquerque, NM and then Brooklyn, NY in between. Her identities include being white, being a parent, being Jewish, and being both personally and professionally a part of the queer community. Julia embraces a stance of cultural humility and works from a collaborative, feminist/relational frame with a humanistic foundation to engage in a therapy that fit best each student's needs. She uses a holistic framework to work with each student to find ways to create change—working together to help relieve distress and find strength and empowerment. Julia works from an understanding that our intersecting identities and histories impact our experience of the world, which in turn impact our well-being.
